ABSTRACT

This chapter focusses on the identity and perceptions of Ebola survivors in Liberia, and how anthropological insight can help to understand their experiences better. We discuss how the survivor’s body can take on new meanings – public and private – after experiencing Ebola, and how the label of ‘survivor’ is as problematic as it is celebratory, with many survivors feeling stigmatised and ostracised upon returning to their communities. The authors explore the multiple meanings of being a ‘survivor’ and the impact that this can have upon individual lives after being discharged from an Ebola Management Centre and reintegrated into their ‘before’ lives. In reflecting upon what it means to be a survivor, the authors also consider the complexity of conducting research within an Ebola outbreak, their fieldwork including ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and focus group discussions with survivors and their families, traditional leaders and health care workers in six different communities across Liberia. We discuss the methodological contribution that anthropologists can make in the context of Ebola, and how anthropologists – alongside other actors such as health promotion and psycho-social teams – become key during an outbreak.